Verzamelgeschiedenis (toelichting)provenance Het object is in 1926 door de heer M. Knoops aan het Tropenmuseum geschonken onder serienummer 332. De gehele serie bestond uit 15 Benin-bronzen. In 1947 is het meegekomen in de ruil/verkoop van de Afrika collectie van het Indisch Instituut aan het RMV.
'On 2 November 1926 Matthias Knoops donated objects to the Tropenmuseum. Knoops (Arnhem, 16 October 1868 – 10 February 1942) was a tobacco trader [...].
Correspondence with Knoops shows that he offered to donate his collection of 14 Benin objects on 20 October 1926, enquiring whether the museum also collected objects from outside the Dutch colonies. He wrote: ‘I am in possession of several bronze objects from Benin (Africa), among which a few very rare items.’ He also offered a copy of Von Luschan’s book ‘Altertümer von Benin’ as part of the donation (NL-Ha-NA 1913-1947). The objects were received by the museum on 2 November 1926. In the original museum register of the Koloniaal Instituut (Inventaris der Verzamelingen V) the collection is described extensively with virtually the same text as on the TM inventory cards (MR-A: NL-HaNA. 1926-1927; AR-A 1926: NL-HaNA-KIT-21).
In July 1920, just before the collection is donated to the Tropenmuseum, five of Knoops’s Benin objects are exhibited at the Museum van Kunstnijverheid (Museum of Crafts) in Haarlem (Huygen 2018, Algemeen Handelsblad 1920). While the start date of the loan is uncertain, the loan was returned to Knoops on 12 October 1926 (Noord-Hollands Archief 1901-1934). This suggests that at least some of the objects donated in 1926 must have been in Knoops’s possession since at least 1920. A handwritten note on a letter from Knoops suggests the objects were numbered 2578, 2579, 2580, 2581 and 2582 (NLHlm_NHA_3231_75). These numbers correspond with the description in the museum register of the Museum van Kunstnijverheid (fig. 15), which shows that Knoops only loaned the bronze head, cockerel and three bronze figures to the museum (NL-Hlm_HNA_3231_67). Based on some of the dated objects in the inventory book the loan must have been given between 1912 and 1920 (NL-Hlm_NHA_3231_67). In the reports of the years 1913 and 1914 the five objects are not mentioned as loans (NL-Hlm_NHA_3231_47), nor in the registers up to 1917 (NL-Hlm_NHA_3231_71) or in the annual report of 1919-1920 (NL-Hlm_NHA_3231_17). This narrows down the arrival date of the loan between 1918 and 1919. Only annual reports from 1919 onwards and registers up to 1917 are available so the date cannot be narrowed down any further.
In November 1947, the Museum Volkenkunde bought objects from the Tropenmuseum among which were 14 Knoops objects from Benin (RV-2668-432 to -445).This was the time when the Tropenmuseum discovered that one of the original Knoops objects (TM-332-12) that was initially described as ‘namaak’ (imitation) had gone missing. Missing since then, the object was officially deaccessioned in 2004. The entire acquisition, series RV-2668 comprising 3147 objects, was listed as ‘West Afr. Nigeria’ (MR-L: LdnRMV_A03_065_0027). The series dossier does not reveal any information on individual objects. A link to 1897 cannot be proven, but the visual characteristics of especially RV-2668-444 and RV-2668-445 make it likely.'
'The documentation cards from the Museum Volkenkunde, written in April 1987, and in some cases also documentation from the Tropenmuseum written before 1947, seem to indicate that some of the Knoops objects may be of more recent (post-1897) manufacture. Apart from the head of an Oba (RV-2668-445), the rooster (RV-2668-444) and the man with a gun pointing at a leopard (RV-2668-432) all other artworks have been described as ‘modern’ or ‘imitation.’ The Dutch epithets give an indication of the ideas that curators at the time held about what constituted historical Edo material culture. However, more detailed art historical analysis is needed to establish whether the perceived ‘modern imitations’ were indeed produced after 1897.'
(Excerpt from Provenance no. 2 'The Benin Collections at the National Museum of World Cultures' written by Rosalie Hans with Annette Schmidt, 19-01-2021).
Publicaties over het objectbibliography For more information about the provenance, see <a href="https://issuu.com/tropenmuseum/docs/2021_provenance_2__benin__e-book" target="_blank"> Provenance #2 – the Benin collections at the National Museum of World Cultures </a> (NB: Issuu uses cookies).